Monthly Archives: August 2016

Tik knocked lightly on the door to Magister Fairsong’s office. He was certain he would be here at this time of the day. The last classes had just ended fifteen minutes ago, and the Magister preferred finishing his work before doing anything else.

“Come in.” He heard the Magister call from inside.

He turned the door knob, and opened the door. As he expected, Magister Fairsong sat at his desk with a stack of papers in front of him. “Hello Tik.”

“Hello Magister. I was hoping you might have time to talk.”

Magister Fairsong put down his pen, and put the papers to the side. “Of course,” he said as he looked up and folded his hands on his desk. “Take a seat.”

Tik sat in one of the two chairs on the other side of the desk. He hesitated, not having thought of the exact words he meant to use.

“Is something wrong? The demons aren’t here are they?”

“No, Magister. It’s nothing like that.” Tik tried to sound reassuring, though he was worried. There was no need to make the Magister panic, and he would panic if he thought there was even the slightest chance of a demon getting through his wards. Tik could hardly blame him. He looked directly at the Magister. “It’s about Lilithel.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Just fine. I just thought you might want to lessen her work load for a bit, and hire someone to help out temporarily.”

Tik nodded, “Yes, well, she is. She’s just also a little pregnant. Maybe. She has an appointment with your sister tomorrow. She didn’t want me to say anything, but I worry a bit. If she is, then a lessened work load might be a good idea.”

The Magister looked confused. Finally, he said, “But she’s old.”

Tik took a slow deep breath, resisting an urge to twitch an ear. “She is older than most women who are having babies. This is true. I am as well. You must know that the older the mother is, the more things could go wrong. That is why I am requesting that you lessen the work she has to do.”

Magister Fairsong seemed to consider it for a moment before replying, “If she is, tell me after her appointment with my sister, and I’ll ask Terellion to put a sign up.” He paused as if considering something else, then said, “Are you going to get married? We could have a third huge wedding here this summer. I’m sure everyone would love it! Terellion would make a huge cake, and we could all decorate the garden, and- Oh! We would need to teach someone else to make spinach rolls. You can’t work at your own-”

“Magister,” Tik interrupted. “There won’t be a wedding. We’ve both decided that’s not what we want.”

The look on the Magister’s face told Tik he was going to have to explain.

“It’s not that we don’t love each other, but she likes where she is right now, and she likes her space. I have always lived in the main building, and I do not wish to leave. I suppose neither of us like change that much.”

“A baby is a big change.”

Magister Fairsong was right about that. Tik couldn’t agree more. He nodded in response.

“We could build onto the house,” Magister Fairsong smiled,”and make your room bigger. Maybe we could even turn it into an apartment. Then it would be big enough for Lilithel and the baby too.”

“That won’t be necessary, Magister. As I said, I think we’re both happy where we are, and I agree with you that a baby is a big change. I suppose we will see what happens.”

Magister Fairsong nodded though he still looked like he didn’t quite understand.

Tik stood. “I won’t keep you from your work, Magister, and I should get back to mine. Was there anything you needed while I’m here?”

“No, Tik. Thank you. Let me know tomorrow if I need to get some signs up.”

Tik nodded as he dipped into a quick short bow, “Of course, Magister.” He turned and left the room as Magister Fairsong went back to work on the stack of papers.

Alinash Brightblaze picked up the paper left for him on the nightstand. He’d spent another unproductive day sifting through the trash, finding everything but what he was looking for. Harrier must have smelled him when he entered, and left him a note while he was in the shower. His hair was still wet. He was careful not to drip on it as he unfolded the paper.

I hate stupid baubles.

He looked down at the paper as he undid the last fold. It was a list. More specifically, it was a list of names and addresses. He smiled slightly as he read down the list, recognizing the family name of some of them. Harrier had come through in getting information on his former landlady’s family. Some of them even had the relation written next to the name. There was a sister, two daughters, a son and numerous grandchildren. Luckily, it seemed that most of the grandchildren were still young enough to be living with their parents. There were only two, both boys, who had different addresses.

The old landlady had claimed to have discarded everything in the apartment, but Alinash had a feeling she was lying. She must have kept anything that looked valuable, and the bauble, whether it was truly valuable or not, must have looked like something worth keeping. His efforts to find it in the actual trash pit had turned up nothing, and he was tired of smelling bad. Not to mention there was a crazy man there who thought the trash pit was his. Alinash rubbed his shoulder lightly, noting that his latest bruise still hurt. He was just glad his hat had stayed on.

I hate garbage. I hate crazy trash man.

It couldn’t be in the trash. He had convinced himself that much, not that it was difficult to find reasons to avoid going to the trash heap again. It smelled. There were seagulls shitting everywhere. The crazy man with his stupid stick was there. He’d lost his breakfast more than once by finding some of the most disgusting things upon his arrival. He couldn’t eat again until he was back home and clean. Starving wasn’t going to help him find his necklace charm. It couldn’t be there. It wasn’t the kind of thing that would end up in the garbage. The landlady must have done something else with it.

He looked down at the list again. He’d have to spend time watching the houses before deciding when to go in, but which one to start with? Perhaps the landlady’s sister, but if she was as old and blind as the landlady, then she wouldn’t appreciate a pretty bauble. One of the daughter’s might be a better choice. The younger one, he decided. He mentally noted the address before refolding the paper and placing it inside the drawer of his night stand.

Yesterday, Tik went to Silvermoon to get some supplies during the day. I made his portal there, and went to make a portal back for him two hours later. After he put things away, he wanted to see me, so we went to talk in my office. That’s when he showed me the paper.

It was one of those news flyers, the kind they hand out while trying to get you to buy the actual paper. I guess there would have been more details in the paper, but the flyer said enough. The Legion has returned to Azeroth.

At first, I wanted to use chronomancy to kind of peek ahead to make sure everything would be okay, but even if I did that, there’s no telling that what I saw would be the right future. Different things could happen and the future would be different. Plus Renner would be mad. I’m not supposed to look at my own future.

I have looked before. Well, more than looked. The school was here then, but that was before I knew Renner, and before I knew better. Just because it was there in that future doesn’t mean it will be here in all futures. I’ve seen enough alternate timelines to know that.

Anyway, I’m afraid now, but I guess it’s kind of weird because I’m not afraid for myself. I’m afraid for my family, for the students, and for everyone else here in the Ghostlands. We don’t have guards, and blood knights, or anything really. We just have a small ranger unit and a few graduated mages here at the school. So then I started to think of how to protect everyone.

I decided then that I’d rather do some kind of work to keep myself from worrying too much. I changed into pants so that I could go help Ter with the gardening or something, and that would also give me the chance to show him the paper and talk to him about it. At the same time, I was looking for a way to stop thinking about it, but I wound up showing him the paper.

He didn’t have work for me to do, but we were able to start planning. I had a whole list of things to do today after talking to him last night! I think I felt a little better about things after we talked, but that might be because we talked about cake too.

This morning, the first thing I did was fill out the application for exemption to file with the Spire. Everyone at the school is necessary, and as it’s the only school serving the Ghostlands, and a magic academy for older students. The continued operation of the school is necessary.

The second thing I had to do was talk to Aeramin. That was easy because he’s usually here fairly early because I guess Imralion goes to Silvermoon that early, so I just had to wait for him to get here before asking to see him in my office. I showed him the paper, and I think he actually got excited, at least at first, but then it was like he thought about it and got serious after. He’s so weird sometimes.

Anyway, I needed to know how to make wards against demons, and I figured he might know some things about that. It turns out he’s very good with that. Unfortunately, as I expected, I had to accurately define a demon with magic and that meant I had to see one.

Fortunately, Aeramin has demons in his basement. I didn’t know that. He was hesitant at first, but then he finally suggested showing them to me. So we went to his place. He has two imps that he just lets stay there all the time. He said the basement is warded, not to keep demons out but to keep demons in, but it would work both ways. I spent some time studying the ward before we went downstairs. He wanted me to stay on the stairs because the ward starts there. So I did. I sat down on the steps and watched as he called out two imps from their hiding places. He called one Zorkin and the other Yappy. He said Zorkin was as harmless as a house cat, which I have a hard time believing. Yappy can cast fire spells. He also said that Yappy was his first.

Then he uncovered a summoning circle that he keeps hidden under a rug. He spent about ten minutes checking it, and he kept saying that if I wanted to ward against stronger demons I couldn’t be using Yappy and Zorkin as the basis for the spell. I didn’t like the sound of that. I liked it less when he started summoning something.

It was a felguard. He claimed it was the same one that injured him, and said he was in control of it now. I didn’t like it, but he was right. I could tell this one was a lot stronger than the imps, and I made a mental note of my impressions of it. Luckily, he sent it away as soon as I told him I had seen it enough.

I got to practice on one of the imps. He took the small sickly looking one out of his basement and to his sitting room where I made a small ward around it. He asked it to test the boundaries of the ward and everything worked.

I told him the rest of my plans for the day, and he wanted to know if I wanted help. I decided that would be good because I was expecting to be exhausted mentally and magically by the end of the day. The wards I had planned for my sister’s clinic and the ranger buildings would have been the type I have to go renew every week or so, but they take a lot out of the caster to set up. Then the one around the school would have been a constant drain on me, but it would be the strongest one because it would constantly be fed the magic it needs to stay in place.

Anyway, after telling him what I planned to do, he offered to take care of the ranger buildings. We both went back to the school, and I added the demon ward spell to the rest of the ward there, then we went to the ranger building.

I guess Aeramin wanted to talk to his father because he wandered off with him while I went to see Sath’alor. I showed him the paper, and told him all the buildings could be warded by the end of the day. I also suggested that he request exemption with the Spire as the rangers are necessary for the safety of the citizens in the Ghostlands.

He seemed alarmed, but ready to start planning for any problems. He appreciated the wards, and wanted to make sure his house would get one too. I assured him that his house and the cabins would all be warded.

I left Aeramin to do that while I went to see my sister in town. I let her and the confessor know, and set up her wards while I was there. I assured them that the wards were strong, but they would be welcome to stay at the school if they wanted to. I also let them know that the ward covered their yard too so they can take Talinda outside. I also told them to be careful about letting Vaildor go anywhere on his own. Travel by portal is better than travel by foot anyway!

Isandri and Esladra were there, and expressed their need for wards as well, so I took care of that too.

When I got back home, I was so tired, but Ter and I spoke to the girls. Narise doesn’t really understand, which is good. Hopefully, she won’t ever have to, but Malwen was a bit scared. I gave her an enchanted bell that she can ring at night and we’ll be able to hear in our room. If she needs us for anything, all she needs to do is ring the bell and we’ll be right there. We also let her know that if she’s really scared, she can come sleep in our room. She seems to want to stay in her own room for now. We reassured her that the school is the safest place to be, but she must always be with someone when she goes outside.

I’m hoping it’ll all be enough. Ter and I did come up with a plan that if things get really bad, I will open a portal to another time and we’ll just leave. I don’t want to have to give everything up, but I will if it means Malwen and Narise will be safe.